The Sandwich Secondary School's Robotics team, "Sabre Bytes" is one of the most established local teams and has been to the world championships before. They hope to make it to Detroit this year where the 2018 FIRST Robotics Global Championships are being held. Students Steven Ward, left, Luke Rimak, centre and Brad Learn work on an intake system for a robot on Tuesday, March 6, 2018.Dan Janisse / Windsor Star

That’s how organizers describe an international competition that will see hundreds of brainy teams from around the world — including several from Windsor-Essex, it’s hoped — gather in Detroit next month for the FIRST Robotics Global Championships.

An estimated 40,000 robotics fans, including CEOs and leaders from the world’s biggest corporations, are anticipated at the April 25-28 event, which is also expected to transform Detroit’s downtown for visitors between the main venues at Cobo Hall and Ford Field.

“It’s a complete game-changer, an incredible event with nothing else like it,” gushed longtime FIRST Robotics enthusiast Irek Kusmierczyk, a city councillor and director of partnerships at regional innovation centre WEtech Alliance.

“This is bigger than the Super Bowl, it’s huge.”

What makes it an even bigger sporting event, said Kusmierczyk, will be its lasting impact.

The Sandwich Secondary School’s Robotics team, “Sabre Bytes” is one of the most established local teams and has been to the world championships. They hope to make it to Detroit this year where the 2018 FIRST Robotics Global Championship is being held. Teacher Lee Awad, works on their robot with students Steven Ward, foreground, and Jake Blythe on Tuesday, March 6, 2018.Dan Janisse /
Windsor Star

Detroit-Windsor didn’t make the shortlist of candidates for a multibillion-dollar Amazon investment, partly because of a perceived lack of local tech skills and talent. FIRST Robotics is all about injecting into youth an enthusiasm for science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) disciplines.

“A program like FIRST Robotics, and an event like this, prepares us for the next Amazon bid — this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity,” said Kusmierczyk, who helped introduce and expand FIRST Robotics in Windsor.

To get to Detroit, teams must get through district competitions and then a provincial championship. The University of Windsor’s St. Denis Centre hosts a Windsor Essex Great Lakes Event March 30-31, with 38 teams registered. The best move on to the FIRST Ontario Provincial Championships, April 12-14 in Mississauga.

“This really changes lives,” said FIRST Robotics regional chairman Larry Koscielski, a vice-president at industrial company CenterLine (Windsor) Ltd. He said the local program has ballooned over the past five years from about 50 students to approximately 1,200 today in Windsor, Essex and Chatham-Kent.

Canada is a FIRST Robotics powerhouse, and Michigan has the highest number of teams of any state in the U.S. Last year, the Windsor area sent three teams to the world championships and four the year before. Koscielski is confident at least three local teams will make it to Detroit.

The Sandwich Secondary School’s Robotics team, “Sabre Bytes” is one of the most established local teams and has been to the world championships. They hope to make it to Detroit this year where the 2018 FIRST Robotics Global Championship is being held. Teacher Lee Awad, centre, works on their robot with students Jake Blythe, left, and Steven Ward on Tuesday, March 6, 2018.Dan Janisse /
Windsor Star

At the most competitive level of FIRST Robotics, high school teams of about 25 students get six weeks to build and program robots to perform different tasks on a set floor plan — tasks like picking up a ball, delivering it around hurdles to a location and throwing it into a target.

For those who have been to a FIRST event — both the St. Denis and Detroit competitions are open to the public and free — the cheering is loud, the music thunderous and the action non-stop. Team members dress up, operate inside pit areas and can boast loud and colourful cheering sections. Koscielski said a third of the budget for this month’s regionals will be blown on the AV and sound system.

Irek KusmierczykTyler Brownbridge /
Windsor Star

“This is way more than robots,” said Koscielski, whose day job is as a senior manager in process and technology development. The teams, with mentors culled from academia and private industry, are set up and operated like companies, with members not just assembling operational robots with hydraulic arms, drive trains and circuit boards. They are also required to be entrepreneurial, raising money, doing web design, performing community outreach, designing team brands, as well as marketing and communication strategies.

Windsor’s busy industrial and tech businesses are hemorrhaging millions of dollars annually because jobs in the STEM fields are going unfilled. Koscielski said it’s no different at CenterLine, where a workforce of 750 manufactures welding equipment, primarily for automotive customers. FIRST Robotics, he said, is opening the eyes of youths who might not have otherwise considered such a future.

“It really gives young people an advantage in the knowledge economy,” said Kusmiercyzk, adding he hopes teachers and schools will organize field trips to attend the world championships.

“The difference between our sport and any other sport is that all of our participants go on to become pros,” said Koscielski. Some of the world’s biggest companies mentor FIRST teams, and he said it’s not uncommon to have CEOs down in the pits, coaching and encouraging competitors.

As for once-in-a-lifetime — Detroit also won the right to host the FIRST Robotics worlds in 2019 and 2020.

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